Ferring closes key research site, letting go 89 workers in San Diego

In May, the Ferring Research Institute in San Diego will let all 89 of its employees go.

Led by SVP of global drug discovery and external innovation Araz Raoof, the institute works on small molecule and peptide drug discovery, as well as machine learning and artificial intelligence work to find new drug targets, according to Ferring’s website.

The Swiss biopharma notified its employees last week, per a California WARN notice, which was first reported by Fierce Biotech. Ferring refers to the center as its “global research arm and ideas incubator.” The drug developer’s pipeline includes work across reproductive medicine and maternal health, gastroenterology, urology and url-oncology.

The closure comes after two FDA approvals in the span of a few weeks in the last quarter of 2022, including a gene therapy for bladder cancer and a fecal-based drug implant for preventing the recurrence of C. difficile infection.

Araz Raoof

Formed in 1996 and relocated to the Sorrento Valley in 2009, the institute underwent a refresh and expansion just last year. Other key Ferring research is conducted in Copenhagen and Israel, with 11 R&D and 15 manufacturing sites in total, per the company’s website.

The San Diego region has been impacted by layoffs at a few biotech and life sciences companies in recent months, including Evofem Biosciences, Thermo Fisher, and Locanabio.

Ferring did not immediately respond to an Endpoints News inquiry.

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